Local Producer Wins Big on Biggest Loser

Persistence Pays Off for Contestant

By Heather Larson

Alameda TV producer Jennifer Rumple had issues with her weight from the time she reached her eighth birthday through college and into her first job producing local newscasts for television.
“In news, the hours are insane; there is no time for lunches and no time to prepare food,” says Rumple.
Meeting challenges head-on has always been Rumple’s style, and dealing with her weight was no exception.
When she saw an episode of the Biggest Loser reality TV show where one of the contestants pushed trainer Bob Harper up a steep hill in a wheelbarrow, Rumple decided that working with Harper and appearing on the show was what she needed to change her life. She sent in her audition tape for Season 4, which began in September 2007.
She wasn’t selected. And that scenario repeated itself for every consecutive season until Season 12, which aired in the fall of 2011.
“When I was selected, it was one of the greatest days of my life,” says Rumple. “I was ready.”
Rumple admitted her first day at the Biggest Loser Ranch was brutal, with Harper yelling at her and pushing against her knees while she did squats on the wall. Then she suffered a stress fracture on her knee and could only exercise in the pool. Finally the other contestants sent her home after only six weeks. Determined not to miss a beat, she continued her Biggest Loser regime at home. It paid off when
she became the Biggest Loser At-Home Winner for the season. She started the
show weighing 330 pounds and at the
finale she’d lost 145 pounds.
Now she can run the stairs in the 210-foot-high Coit Tower in San Francisco in less than five minutes, wears a size 10 and plans to run the next Los Angeles Marathon.
“There is no quick fix to losing weight. Just make healthy choices on a daily basis,” says Rumple, who hopes to pay forward the knowledge she gained on the show.